FP7 Capacities Work Programme: Infrastructures
We would like to take part as a partner research organization in the
organizing project on
INFRA-2011-1.1.8. Facilities and resources for plant phenotyping
Institution: Agricultural Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ARI
HAS)
Address: H-2462 Martonvásár, Brunszvik u. 2.
Home page: www.mgki.hu
Contact person: Ottó Veisz DSc. Deputy Director, E-mail: veiszo@mail.mgki.hu
Our infrastructures:
1, Phytotron (key infrastructure)
The Martonvásár phytotron is one of the largest, most up-to-date facilities for large-scale
plant experimentation in Europe, comprising around fifty plant growth chambers of
various sizes and functions, in which plant experiments can be programmed and reproduced at
any time of the year, irrespective of the external weather conditions. The climate of any part
of the world can be simulated in the plant growth units, while the environmental factors most
important for plant life can also be regulated independently in order to study their separate
effects. The phytotron provides excellent facilities for a wide range of plant phenotyping and
research. As the emphasis in scientific research has changed over the last thirty years, so the
type of projects carried out in the growth units has also changed. In the early years the
controlled environment was exploited chiefly for research on biotechnology, flowering
biology, plant genetics and physiology, while nowadays an increasingly large proportion of
the projects involve the study of the probable effects of global climate changes and the
correlation between climatic extremes and the growth, development, chemical quality, and
abiotic and biotic resistance of plants. In plant phenotyping, increased importance is now
attached to agroecological research, the study of extreme climatic effects and crop production
questions related to environment protection. The phytotron facilities are also used to
investigate the physiological and biochemical processes involved in the adaptation of cereals
to abiotic stress (temperature, drought, heavy metals) and to study the genes responsible for
adaptation from the functional genomics point of view.
Scientific background of the infrastructure: The phytotron facilities are available not only
to institute staff, but also to other Hungarian and foreign scientists. The regulations covering
the use of the phytotron are to be found on the institute’s homepage. Around 4500
experiments have been carried out since the phytotron was opened, forming the basis of
over 4000 scientific papers (most of them published in international journals with high
impact factors, such as TAG, Genome, Plant Breeding, Euphytica, Photosynthetica,
etc.), 2000 or more articles in non-scientific publications and around 100 PhD and DSc
theses. Most of the funding obtained by institute staff also includes phytotron experiments.
The phytotron also plays an important role in the implementation of the AGRISAFE project
(EU FP-7, REGPOT).
The phytotron provides a unique opportunity to carry out plant experiments under controlled,
reproducible conditions and to make separate studies on genetic and environmental effects.
The experiments conducted in the phytotron have made a substantial contribution to an
increase in the abiotic stress resistance of cereals. The phytotron provides an ideal
environment for investigating the effects of global climate change on agricultural crops,
hopefully leading to the mitigation or elimination of these effects. In the phytotron the
phenotyping of gene effects that could not be studied in the field, or only with certain risks, is
possible under strictly isolated conditions. We have 60 years experience on the field of
plant phenotyping.
2, Our infrastructure for green house and field research:
A 1000 m² greenhouse, and field nurseries for the breeding of plant species, the testing of
selected genotypes and the performance of long-term experiments are also attached to the
phytotron. This infrastructure has the capacity for 150 ha small-plot field experiments a year.
Advanced machinery for seed dressing, seed cleaning, sowing, spraying and harvesting
promote the setting up and implementation of the experiments. A quality analysis laboratory
equipped with the most up-to-date instruments, capable of handling ten to fifteen thousand
samples a year, is available to analyse the chemical traits of cereal species. The storage and
evaluation of the data is served by an IT system that covers the whole of the research
infrastructure.During a survey and evaluation of Hungarian research infrastructure, conducted
in 2010, the phytotron, greenhouse and field research infrastructure at ARI HAS was
classified as being of strategic importance.